Saturday, January 30, 2010

Quilt Show!!

Two words that spark any quilter's heart. lol.

Tasha and I went to a small but special quilt show yesterday. For the past three or four years I have been attending the Mennonite Central Committee's showing of quilts due to be auctioned in the yearly relief sale. A majority of the quilts are hand quilted by the center's volunteers but the tops are made by a variety of people.

They have a small space to share the quilts in so normally most are quarter folded and hung on racks. This year they put a few on the walls and separated the wall hangings in one area and the full size quilts in another. Another new feature this year was the viewer's choice voting. They've not done that before but this year there was a listing of the quilts and the maker's names and each quilt was numbered and you were able to vote on the way out.

So here are some of the beautiful wall hangings:



This is probably my favorite wall hanging. I do so love tulips.




I love the little prairie point birdhouses on this one!









And some of the gorgeous full-size quilts:





This is one of the quilts the volunteers had on the quilting frame during last year's show. I'd love to make one like this too - and in my favorite colors of pink and green. Or they could just let me have this one!







And look at the detail on this lovely crocheted table topper:



And my pick of the show:



I've seen this quilt before and think at one point I even had a pattern for it. I would dearly love to make one - now if I can just find the pattern. lol.

Pretty much the only quilting work I've been able to finish lately is the quilt in the picture at the top of my blog. I needed something for my newly painted bathroom walls. I made some curtains and had a bit of fabric left so I whipped up this little quilt and I really like how it looks.

Thunders says "hey".



Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Thursday, January 14, 2010

The ~Final~ 2010 Quilting List.......I Think

Well as we enter 2010 I've looked through my stash, my magazines, my books and my drawings and come up with the short list of projects I have planned for this year.

We're really suffering the effects of the economy here. DH has been out of work since October, 2008 so I'm looking to do as much as I can from my stash which is mainly contained in one large Rubbermaid tote. I'm also working more hours (thank God for that) so that's cutting into my quilting time. So a short list is appropriate.

Two projects will be made mostly with new fabrics courtesy of loving family members in the way of Christmas presents.

Rodger is planning to give our bedroom a paint job when it gets warm. Paint irritates me something terrible so we need plenty of ventilation. We don't have an exact shade but it will be something light brown.

So I will be using these fabrics to make a Bear's Paw quilt for our bed.



The print is Timeless Treasures and will be used for the paws. The yummy brown is Kona Cotton (I loooove Kona Cotton) and will be used for the background.

These fabrics, plus a few others, will be used to make a Schoolhouse quilt, also for our bed.



The sumptuous deep blue print is a Kona Bay tulip tonal. If I could only have one line of fabric the rest of my life I think I would chose Kona Bay. The creamy off-white is Kona Cotton (I did mention that I love Kona Cotton didn't I?).

I got these fabrics from Fabric Shack (www.fabricshack.com). The fabric is delicious, the service is excellent, the selection is enormous, the prices are competitive and the shipping is lightning fast.

I'm also planning to finish up my Tisket/Tasket wall hangings. I finished three more (you'll see them in a bit), have two more to quilt and two more I haven't started.

Just a couple of other things planned. I'm doing Quilting The Names of Jesus with a Yahoo group. One 6 inch block per week for 26 weeks along with an awesome Bible study.

On the pile to be quilted, in addition to the 2 Tisket/Tasket wall hangings are a table runner, a DIC and the scarecrow/pumpkin quilt I created last year.

In the quilting hoop right now is my Butterflies On My Fence quilt.

I have planned for a few years now to make a Nativity quilt I saw online and I'd really like to fit that into my plans for this year.

Last, but not least, I'm making a small charm quilt to drape over an old scrub board that I'll hang on the bathroom wall.

So that leads to the few things I have already finished in these first few days of the New Year.

They're all my Tisket/Tasket baskets. December:



July:



and May:



We had a bit of a celebration last week. Thunder had his second (or fourteenth depending on how you look at it) birthday.



Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody